WEST COAST FLOODS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 407, 16 January 1909, Page 7

WEST COAST FLOODS.

UNFORTUNATE REEFTON. RIVER TAKES CHARGE AND DOES AIIiCH DAMAGE. ' (B1 TKtECUAPH— riIESS ASSOCUTIOH.) Reef ton, January IS.. ' Tho. Reefton district has been visited by a stonri unequalled for years. Two days' steady rain culminated last ovening in a terrific downpour. , In two hours the creaks, already greatly swollen, becamo roaring torrents, swooping down trees and bridges, and washing away ovorything movable. -. The damage dono by tho river Inangahua and its various tributaries ia calculated to bo enormous. . .The luangahua County will be a very heavy sufferer. .Two piers. erected in connection with tlio extension of "the waterworks, now in process of construction, were 'washed .away, with derrick, ropes, and-ap-pliances. A large numbor of concrete pipes constructed.'on the banks of the Inangahua wera washed away or destroyed. ' .. Rosstbwn, a isurburban district of Reefton, had the road washed clean away, isolating tho electric light works, which aro now supplied with coal by a passage made through private gardens. All road communications have been cut off. •' The damage done in the Alurray Creek has been very great. A big block of 'trees occurred, damming up the water till a boom -was made, whon it burst, carrying all before it. : ~

Tho main traffic bridge, over the Inangahua : River was endangered by a mass of floating trees, but it stood the strain, though greatly , shaken. .

: Great slips have occurred all over the district. Communication between Black's Point, and Crushington (suburbs of Reefton in the valloy'of the Inangahua River) has been cut off. ■■ ,

Reports are still coming to hand of fresh damage at Waitahu,. where: two branches of ; tho river'unito; The flood is tho biggest on record.

Acres of land are flooded, while a number of sheep belonging to settlers have -beon drowned. The. potato crops have been mined in some places. .